piteous my rhyme is

Question 1

structure

Answer 1

2 10 line stanzas that echo eachother in shape, rhythm and rhyme

matching shape of stanzas contrasts 2 perspectives on love

Question 2

metre

Answer 2

same metre throughout

iambic tetrameter and iambic dimeter

Question 3

published?

Answer 3

in a christian devotional prose/poetry book in 1885

written a year before the end of Rossetti’s life, perhaps she is considering her relationship with god as she nears the end of her life.

Question 4

what does it explore and whats the biblical link

Answer 4

explores the idea that all sin comes from failure to love. (link to matthews sermon on the mount)

Question 5

asyndetic list

Answer 5

(love and pain, love misspent, love in vain)- love and its insufficiency.

Question 6

‘piteous my rhyme is’ connotations

Answer 6

suggests poetry cant express feelings, love is beyond what can be portrayed in her art (tries to express the inexpressible in her poetry)

degree of self loathing implied by critique

Question 7

‘of love that is not loved again:’

Answer 7

wasteful and futile nature of earthly love, eternity of divine love

colonabruptly introduces questioning of meaning of love

Question 8

‘time is but a span’

Answer 8

time limits love, but not divine love

Question 9

‘And’ anaphora in second stanza

Answer 9

praises divine love, shows abundance it offers

Question 10

all in all

Answer 10

reference to corinthians, god exists at higher power